a16z backs EigenLayer with $70m token buy amid EigenCloud launch

a16z crypto, the digital assets arm of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has deepened its investment in EigenLayer with a new $70 million token acquisition, coinciding with the launch of the Ethereum restaking protocol’s developer platform, EigenCloud.

On June 17, 2025, Eigen Labs announced the official launch of EigenCloud, a unified cloud platform aimed at accelerating crypto’s app era. 

As the EigenLayer (EIGEN) community celebrated this major milestone, the Eigen Labs team revealed that a16z had acquired an additional $70 million worth of EIGEN tokens to support the rollout. This builds on the $100 million investment a16z made in Eigen Labs’ Series B funding round in February 2024.

“EigenLayer is surmounting the technical bottlenecks of blockchains to enable a new category of applications built on verifiable solutions,” said Ali Yahya, general partner at a16z crypto. “We are thrilled to expand our investment in the project.”

According to Eigen Labs, the latest token purchase will support commercialization efforts for EigenCloud’s new services. These include EigenVerify, a dispute resolution tool, and EigenCompute, a solution focused on execution. Both services are part of EigenCloud’s broader suite, which integrates with EigenLayer’s Autonomous Verifiable Services and EigenDA. 

The Eigen Labs team has been developing the EigenCloud solution for nearly a year. The platform is built on EigenLayer and powered by its native ecosystem token, EIGEN.

“EigenCloud will enable the next generation of disruptive, mass-market crypto apps, closing the gap between what developers want to build onchain and what blockchains allow them to build,” said Sreeram Kannan, chief executive officer Eigen Labs. 

Billed as a “verifiability-as-a-service” platform, EigenCloud is set to dramatically expand what’s possible in crypto development. Its infrastructure makes “virtually anything verifiable onchain,” unlocking a wide range of use cases.

Potential applications include disintermediated digital marketplaces, fully onchain games, onchain insurance, automated adjudication, AI agents, and prediction markets.

EigenCloud apps leverage EIGEN stake for security, with generated fees going into staking rewards, product innovation or other ecosystem incentives.